# Pipe Tobacco and Humidification?



## NeroG (Feb 4, 2011)

Hello there,

I've been registered on this forum for quite some time, introduced myself on the cigar section but never really got into discussing things here. 

However I would like to pose a question to you all and that is the issue of pipe tobacco and humidification. Coming from prior experience with a cigar humidor, I had thought there might be a similar practice for pipe smokers however upon reading an article on Pipes Magazine dot com about the issue, it would appear that grandpa's pipe humidor of years ago would seem to be something that has been lost as the article only touched on storing your tobacco in jars for aging. 

The issue I am speaking of is about the keeping of pipe tobaccos that are to be smoked within the next month or months moist. Considering that there are small clay humidifiers and such available, I wonder if there is somewhat of an untapped market for storing pipe tobacco on the short term. 

The reason I say this is an issue is I've heard complaints from pipe smokers who often are in constant possession of several opened tins so they have some variety that have experienced dried out pipe tobacco. 

It would seem to me although I have no experience in the matter, that buying a cigar humidor for this purpose alone would be somewhat of a fix as long as you manage to figure out how to keep the RH at 10-14% compared to 60-70% when dealing with cigars and never keep cigars in said humidor. 

Please understand though, that I am not giving any advice, just mearly expressing my newbie thoughts on the matter before getting involved with the hobby.

Any and all comments and criticism are welcome.

-Thank you for your time,
NeroG


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## WWhermit (Nov 30, 2008)

For me personally, if I'm going to have a tin, or baggie, of tobacco open longer than a week, I store it in a mason jar. It will stay fresh and smoke-worthy for a long, long time in a mason jar, even with dipping into it every few days. I have an open jar of LNF that I've been taking out of for well over a year, and have experienced maybe a 1 or 2% drop in humidity. I personally don't see any need for a pipe tobacco humidor of any kind, but that's just me.

WWhermit
ipe:


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## NarJar (May 9, 2011)

I would agree with WWhermit.

Most everyone I have heard of uses mason jars. I definitely don't have all the answers or know much of anything, but here is my thought process:

1. A mason jar must be airtight. I say that because when you store pipe tobacco in one, the button on the top depresses which means that the tobacco has consumed some of the air within the jar. If the jar was NOT airtight, the button would never depress because air would constantly be entering the jar.
2. With the knowledge mentioned in item 1, mason jars are airtight, if the pipe tobacco lost any moisture, you would see it built up on the sides of the jar or on the bottom of the lid. I have never seen any moisture in my tobacco jars. Therefore, the tobacco is NOT losing moisture.
3. With the knowledge mentioned in item 1 and item 2, mason jars are airtight and the tobacco is NOT losing moisture, the only possibility would be the tobacco receiving some moisture from the air contained in the jar. This is easily remedied as most pipe smokers dry their tobacco out to their personal preferences.
4. Finally, constantly dipping into the jar to get out a bowl of tobacco to smoke should not affect the tobacco. It could lose some moisture while the jar is open, but you're not going to have the jar open long enough to notice a moisture difference. You'll just have it open long enough to grab a bowl full, and then close the jar again. So, of course you will be preventing the aging process by allowing more air to enter the jar when you open it to grab a bowl full, but again, it should not be open long enough to truly affect the moisture.

So, as long as your mason jar is creating an airtight seal, you should be fine.

Hopefully I'm not too far off, and if I am, a more knowledgeable member will step in and correct me. And again, I was just providing my thought process for it all!


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## mmiller (Nov 17, 2011)

I store all my pipe tobacco in mason jars after I open a tin. There are some tobaccos I have had for 6 months in my mason jars and I still have to let them dry before I smoke them. They are cheap and they are airtight so that is the way to go.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

NarJar said:


> So, of course you will be preventing the aging process by allowing more air to enter the jar when you open it to grab a bowl full...


I see this brought up frequently, but I don't understand the reasoning behind it. If air is used up in the aging process (the depressed button clue), introducing more air would not come to my mind as a means of stopping it. If bacteria need air to ferment the sugars and other carbohydrates in the tobacco and casing, then giving them more air doesn't spring to mind as a means of stopping the process, ie, they will keep fermenting their little hearts out whether one opens the jar or not, so long as the tobacco has not dried out. Indeed, Sobranie of London used tobacco aged in wooden casks which were almost certainly not airtight. I doubt that anaerobic bacteria bear the burden of aging tobacco and see no reason why opening and resealing a jar would interrupt the process. :ask: This could be the situation, but I haven't seen the explanation. (My life is dedicated to finding truisms that are false. :smile


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## NarJar (May 9, 2011)

Jim, I feel like I have actually heard that argument before and thought it valid when I originally heard it. However, I apparently did not retain the knowledge!

Even if it doesn't stop the aging process, I would think it would at least slow it down if nothing else, correct?


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## Oldmso54 (Jul 31, 2010)

Cool topic - as a brand new pipe smoker (coming from the cigar side) I had the same curiousity about keeping/storing pipe tobacco. Will continue to watch and learn!


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## TommyTree (Jan 7, 2012)

freestoke said:


> I see this brought up frequently, but I don't understand the reasoning behind it. If air is used up in the aging process (the depressed button clue), introducing more air would not come to my mind as a means of stopping it. If bacteria need air to ferment the sugars and other carbohydrates in the tobacco and casing, then giving them more air doesn't spring to mind as a means of stopping the process, ie, they will keep fermenting their little hearts out whether one opens the jar or not, so long as the tobacco has not dried out. Indeed, Sobranie of London used tobacco aged in wooden casks which were almost certainly not airtight. I doubt that anaerobic bacteria bear the burden of aging tobacco and see no reason why opening and resealing a jar would interrupt the process. :ask: This could be the situation, but I haven't seen the explanation. (My life is dedicated to finding truisms that are false. :smile


If my understanding is correct, the aging process is actually anaerobic, meaning that it doesn't really begin until the air (probably the CO2) in the jar is used up. It does need some air just, for lack of a better explaination, to prime the pump. But I'm no expert. I got the following from Greg Pease's Web site.



> Q: What's the best way to store tobacco for aging?
> 
> A: Ideally, tobacco should be left in its original sealed tin, and stored in a cool, dry place. It's important to realize that storage in plastic bags and the like, while allowing the tobacco to "meld," will prevent the true aging process. Plastic bags are permeable to small molecules. (Water, while not a very large molecule, is polarized, and has a hard time penetrating the barrier formed by the plastic.) If you can smell the contents through the bag, you're losing flavor and aroma! Mason jars, bail-top jars and so on are good candidates for long term storage, as long as you can resist the urge to open them to "check up" on what's happening. Aging tobacco must be left alone, with no gas exchange allowed. Once an aged tin is open, the contents should either be smoked relatively quickly, or transferred to a jar with a good seal.
> 
> ...


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## afilter (Oct 9, 2008)

Jars are the way to go for long term storage and buyng bulk. With that said I have uses humidifier pillows when I have left a tin out and forgot about it to bring baccy back with some success similar to putting a dry cigar in a humidor to bring it back.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

TommyTree said:


> If my understanding is correct, the aging process is actually anaerobic, meaning that it doesn't really begin until the air (probably the CO2) in the jar is used up. It does need some air just, for lack of a better explaination, to prime the pump. But I'm no expert. I got the following from Greg Pease's Web site.


Anaerobic means "without oxygen", so it's the oxygen that would be used up. I scouted around a bit and agree, it's the anaerobic bacteria that seem responsible for the aging phenomenon, which means that it would have to use up the oxygen again before the process resumed.


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## lestrout (Dec 10, 2007)

I personally prefer my cigars plump, but my pipe tobacco almost crispy. Rehydrating if the drying out goes too far for you is easy, with a damp towel over the tin (not touching the leaf). Little is lost in the process to my tastes.

I resort to the Masons for very long term storage only.

hp
les


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## TommyTree (Jan 7, 2012)

freestoke said:


> Anaerobic means "without oxygen", so it's the oxygen that would be used up. I scouted around a bit and agree, it's the anaerobic bacteria that seem responsible for the aging phenomenon, which means that it would have to use up the oxygen again before the process resumed.


Thanks, Jim. I should have thought of that. Basically, when I get in over my head, I turn to Greg Pease or Neill Roan. If there have ever been two guys who vastly overthink pipe tobacco, that's them.


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## Firedawg (Nov 8, 2010)

bail lid jars work great for temp storage (1 year or less) these are great for reaching in and grabbing a bowl so I can have a larger rotation of flavors. I do have some of the "blimps" water tabs if needed.


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## RJpuffs (Jan 27, 2008)

Pipe tobacco doesn't have to be as "moist" as cigars (and baccy is therefore less fragile, from a storing perspective). The factory-level moisture is usually enough for a lifetime of "air-tight" storage. Adding more moisture bring up the danger of mold forming on your precious stash - don't water these plants!

Also - a failed jar/tin seal simply dries the tobacco out - an easy matter to rehydrate and smoke. Not an issue to worry about, cigars on the other hand require constant attention and tending (like a wife, but cigars are much quieter).


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

TommyTree said:


> Thanks, Jim. I should have thought of that. Basically, when I get in over my head, I turn to Greg Pease or Neill Roan. *If there have ever been two guys who vastly overthink pipe tobacco, that's them.*


:lol:

Rats...for some reason I can't find what I was looking at yesterday. In summary, I found the gifs of the pages of a study done back in the 50s (from memory), with bacteria counts at the start, after 52 weeks and again after 2 or 3 years -- something like those time frames. Basically, the progression was always the same, macrobacteria (oxygen type) massively dominating the fresh product, with only 5 or 10 anaerobic bacteria versus thousands of macrobacteria per some leaf area. After 52 weeks, the situation is reversed and after a couple of years the anaerobic counts are in the thousands and the macrobacteria counts are in the tens. Basically, as Emperor Joseph II (aka Jeffrey Jones) would say, "There you have it." If anything is making the tobacco change in a sealed container after a few months, it isn't macrobacteria, because there are hardly any there.

Which puts me in mind of perique. Here we have an aerobic fermentation don't we? "Brewed" tobacco? Or is it anaerobic? In any case, it's pretty wet, as opposed to the relatively low humidity FVF cooking along in your jar. Gotta be at least a different strain of anaerobic OR macrobacteria. Or yeast? :ask: Maybe yeast can't survive the nicotine...

Ha! The numbers: http://tobaccodocuments.org/rjr/500...0&ocr_position=above_foramatted&start_page=11


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